System i Division Split into Two Business Units

[MCWebsite.Staff]

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[KevinW]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
While this is very much an opinion article, it would help very much if the "little" facts mentioned therein were in fact facts. I believe that the next announced OS Version is V6R1, not V5R6. Enjoyed the read however. Kevin Wright

[T.Stockwell]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
Kevin, Thanks for pointing out the typo. This is now corrected. Thomas M. Stockwell

[AppDesigner]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
It's like a bucket of cold water, but there we go.. The "hope" for the best platform IBM ever engineered, the OS.. Maybe they'll use it and put it on other platforms.. Seems it's up to iSociety and IBM's i-partners, the ones that know the value of "our" system, independent of IBM's profit line. That said, it's still vendor-dependent. And that said, they seem to keep their support going, and modernizing the OS apace.. And apparently here comes a "new, improved" i6/OS. I think they should keep the name i6/OS but give it a catchy pickup "nickname". We could make it a grassroots naming movement... --Alan

[nandelin]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
IBM has been transforming steadily from a technology company into a services company with a technology slant, and these reorganizations appear to be more movement in that direction. Technology takes a back-seat to customer relationship management. One positive thing that could come out of the reorganization is reduced pricing of the smaller systems. While large enterprises care more about server consolidation and virtualization and the number of people required to support the IT infrastructure, small enterprises care about having more bang for the buck. I could see an i5 Power Blade in the $5-6K range, and i5 Power Blades servers inserted adjacent to Intel Blades. I asked in an iSociety chat whether IBM would continue disclosing I5 sales after the reorganization. One of my other questions was answered, but that one wasn't, even though I asked it first. I tend to think that IBM won't be disclosing sales on individual platform basis, but will report revenues for the new business units, which span multiple platforms. The reorganization also underscores IBM's server-homogenization strategy, which doesn't bode well for i5/os loyalists, or people who favor the native virtual machine, but IBM is what it is. Now more than ever the future of the native virtual machine will be determined more by ISVs and customers who develop under it than by IBM, though IBM is the owner of it.

[JohndeCoville]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
I hope that "customer relationship management" includes ironing out WDSc 7.0 so that there is a perception that this rapidly improving tool is finally complete. Also it must be price-competitive with Visual Studio on the low end. I don't want the remaining customer-base to just be a cult-like following in love with the AS/400.

[nandelin]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
By "customer relationship management" I meant that IBM didn't want to have representatives from three different divisions showing up at customer sites with each representative trying to sell a different solution. Now IBM representatives from just one business unit can offer I5/OS, AIX, Linux, and Windows based solutions depending on the circumstance. IBM wants their business partners to be able to do that too. If IBM were faced with losing a Domino account because a customer wanted to outsource email and collaboration applications to Google, - not a big problem - at a high level IBM would be happy to provide integration services - developing web services between Google and the customer's applications, for example. IBM is a big company and they want to appear that way to customers. This kind of goes against the grain of I5/OS tradition. I5/OS loyalists are upset about traditionally high-reliability low-maintenance tightly-integrated applications running under the native virtual machine steadily being replaced by a variety of plug-and-play complex-to-manage solutions running under various operating systems and virtual machines, even though the market and industry are heading in that direction.

[J.Pluta]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
Nathan, if your analysis is correct, then this is absolutely a pivotal move in the future of our platform. It will allow all of IBM to sell whatever solution is the best fit. Many of us have been complaining for years about the internal turf wars at IBM that cause one platform to get shuttered for another; hopefully now that will no longer be the case and the platforms will have to duke it out amongst themselves based on merit. Because on merit, the i wins out in a whole lot of cases. And if reps are allowed to pitch all systems, then we could even see a natural growth path: start with an X, move to a P, jump to an I. Joe

[nandelin]

System i Division Split into Two Business Units

** This thread discusses the article: System i Division Split into Two Business Units **
Quote from Mark Shearer in today's iSociety chat: "One of the common themes around all of IBM's recent announcements, is our desire to align our capabilities around clients and markets rather than technology. One piece of this announcement was a new approach to client sales in the SMB market. As many of you know, in the past, when IBM showed up at your door, we often showed up as z reps, i reps, p reps, storage reps. Many of you told us that you view us all as IBM..... and why didn't we represent all of IBMs capabilities vs just selling one product or technology. Now, in the SMB market, we'll begin rolling out "systems sales reps" that can sell what you need, whether it's Intel, i5/OS, Unix, mainframes or storage. This is in direct response to what our clients have asked us to do....to be more solutions focused. It's a trend not just in Systems and Technology Group, but all IBM, to align around our clients rather than our technologies. I think this is a great move." At a high-level, it appears to me that IBM is gradually changing into a company that responds to markets as opposed to a company that drives markets via their technology. My question about whether IBM would publicly report System i sales as a separate line item seemed to be ignored again. Nathan.